Chapter 91: Dragon!... Fast!
The plains near the royal palace.
Will was in mid-air, repeatedly using Agility to fly back and forth, trying to get a feel for the move Extreme Speed. On a large, open field that he had specially cleared out, Scorp, Charizard, and the other Pokémon were being besieged by ten Ampharos.
Now that Will was back, the matter of training Scorp and the others no longer needed to be outsourced to the Pokémon Academy. Bringing the wild herds of Ampharos, Tauros, and Persian over to spar with them not only provided a higher intensity of training, but more importantly, allowed them to accumulate much more practical combat experience. How much experience could you really gain from fighting academy recruits all day? True skill could only be forged by battling against Pokémon who fought for their very survival in the wild.
Scorp and the others didn't need to specifically focus on single-battle experience. In the wars they would eventually participate in, there would be few opportunities for one-on-one duels. It was better to hone their teamwork and strengthen their coordination. And in that regard, the academy recruits obviously couldn't compare to a complete Pokémon herd.
Besides, with Will's connections, these herds wouldn't actually kill Scorp and the others. That was the biggest guarantee.
"Agility is still missing something," Will sighed, feeling the wind rush past his face as he flew at high speed.
The move Extreme Speed was undoubtedly closer to Quick Attack. You could even say it was an "evolved" version of Quick Attack. Both are Normal-type physical moves that have priority in the games. The only differences are their power and PP. Extreme Speed's power is 80, double that of Quick Attack. But without a Pokémon Center or recovery items, Quick Attack can be used 30 times, while Extreme Speed can only be used 5 times.
In reality, this meant that Extreme Speed was much faster and more powerful, thus causing greater damage, but it also consumed much more stamina. If he knew Quick Attack, mastering Extreme Speed wouldn't be this difficult. But the Dragonite line couldn't learn it.
"Phew..."
Will didn't know how long he had been flying. By the time he came to his senses, Charizard and the others had all been defeated. Only Scorp was still standing. Its Flying/Ground typing made it immune to both Thunder and Earthquake, so it naturally lasted longer against the pure Electric-type Ampharos than the others. But the Ampharos's movepool was not shallow; it was only a matter of time before Scorp was taken down.
"Gligar!"
Just then, Scorp used a Quick Attack, slamming into one of the Ampharos. The immense force knocked it back several steps, but it wasn't enough to take it out.
"Hmm?"
Watching this, Will suddenly realized his own training was missing something. The most famous aspect of Extreme Speed is its speed, no doubt. But it is also an excellent offensive skill in its own right. Just practicing speed alone was not enough to master it.
"Let's try Agility plus Take Down," Will murmured to himself. He didn't like using self-damaging moves like Take Down. But right now, it seemed very suitable for helping him recall Extreme Speed. First, use Agility to build speed, then add the charging momentum of Take Down. It should be able to achieve a degraded version of Extreme Speed's effect.
The theory was sound. Now he just had to practice it. By the time he had finished his thought process, Scorp and the others had all been knocked out.
Since he had anticipated this, Will had brought plenty of medicinal herbs with him and fed them to the fallen Pokémon. After a short rest, they would be able to get up and continue training. The great war was imminent. Liz had decided to take the initiative. In this era, even kings would sometimes lead their troops personally into battle. There was not much time left for them to rest; they had to seize every second they could to train. A little physical suffering now was better than the pain of losing friends and family later.
For the next two days, Will focused on trying to recall the move Extreme Speed. The feeling was strange. He was certain the memory of the move was in his mind, but he just couldn't access it. Fortunately, recalling is still better than learning from scratch. After a few days of practice, he finally got the feel for it.
On the fifth day, the move [Extreme Speed] finally appeared on his personal status screen.
"Whew... now that I've mastered this, I can go to Dragonite Valley every day," Will grinned at his status screen.
Extreme Speed not only meant he could drastically shorten his travel time to and from Mt. Silver, but more importantly, it meant he could escape even if he encountered a Pokémon he couldn't beat. Will was well aware that his Lv. 55 might be considered top-tier outside of Mt. Silver, but in the central region, it was merely enough to survive. If he were flying through the central region and encountered a powerful Flying-type Pokémon, the odds were not in his favor.
But with Extreme Speed, he no longer had to worry. If he couldn't win, couldn't he still run? Only a handful of Pokémon could master Extreme Speed. Among those that could fly, besides another Dragonite, there was only the super-rare Togekiss. Any other flying Pokémon, as long as it wasn't more than 10 levels higher than him, absolutely could not catch him.
It might sound like an exaggeration, and before learning the move, he wouldn't have believed it himself. But after mastering it, it was a different story. The Pokédex once said that a Dragonite could circle the globe in 16 hours. Will used to think that was total bull. But now it seemed that a Champion-level Dragonite that could use Extreme Speed continuously could actually do it. Perhaps Lance's Dragonite in the future could.
Dragonite Capital, high above the royal palace.
Will stretched his limbs, intending to test how long it would take him to reach the edge of Mt. Silver using his new move. Before, it took half an hour. Now, with a higher level and Extreme Speed, he estimated it wouldn't take more than ten minutes. But he had to test it to know for sure.
[Extreme Speed]
WHOOSH!
The moment the move was activated, a white light streamed behind him, and he shot off like a skyrocket, with no warm-up needed. The residents of the palace looked up and could only see an orange streak flash across the sky. Many of them thought their eyes were playing tricks on them and rubbed them in disbelief.
"Oof..."
Will, high in the sky, was not having a good time. The fierce wind scraping against his face was actually a little painful, and the scenery was blurring past so fast that even he couldn't keep up.
"It's hard to control. Is my proficiency too low?"
Will tried to change direction in mid-air. But no matter how hard he tried, he could only manage a slight tilt. He couldn't make sharp turns or stop instantly like with Quick Attack. The speed was just too great. Especially since he had only used the move a few times; his body and nerves couldn't adapt to such an excessive speed in a short time. He needed to slowly raise his proficiency with the move.
"But say what you will, it really is fast. A worthy key to Dragonite's god-tier status," Will said, squinting his dry eyes as he raced through the air.
Extreme Speed was absolutely Dragonite's most core skill, bar none. It was so central to its identity that it was often jokingly called the "Extreme Speed Jinchuriki" or a "Normal-type Pokémon." No matter the generation, a Dragonite's move set would almost always include Extreme Speed. After the introduction of Terastallization, a Tera-Normal Extreme Speed became the standard for Dragonite to dominate the competitive scene.
It was only after mastering Extreme Speed that a Dragonite could truly be called...
Dragon!... Fast!
"I need to start stopping."
Seeing the outer forest at the foot of Mt. Silver already in his sights, Will began to try his best to halt his momentum and slow down. But it was much harder than he thought. It was like sprinting a 50-meter dash and then trying to stop on a dime. His body just wouldn't obey his mind. He could only do his best to gradually decrease his speed.
"This is bad," Will muttered, seeing the rapidly approaching forest.
The next moment.
BOOM!
Will crashed into the forest like a meteorite, snapping five or six giant trees in half and plowing a trench more than ten meters long in the ground.
"Ouch, ouch..."
The sharp pain that shot through his body felt as if he had just used Double-Edge. He hadn't expected that a poorly controlled Extreme Speed could cause backlash damage. He had to increase his proficiency with this move as quickly as possible. He didn't need to be able to make 90-degree turns, but at the very least, he had to be able to stop perfectly at his target location.
He climbed up from the ground and looked himself over. At most, he had a few small scrapes; he wasn't even bleeding. A Dragonite's body was sufficiently tough.
"Let's fly back."
Will casually picked up a few berries that had been knocked from the trees and popped them in his mouth. Then, without stopping, he used Extreme Speed again and flew back towards the palace. This time, he was more cautious, starting to decelerate when he was still two hundred meters away. Better to slow down too early than to accidentally crash into the palace and kill Liz.
"About thirteen minutes..."
Will came to a stop and lay panting on the courtyard lawn. A dozen or so minutes of Extreme Speed wasn't his limit, but the move was certainly exhausting. According to his count, a round trip to Mt. Silver had taken thirteen minutes. But that included the crash and the early deceleration. Once he had mastered the move, he should be able to cut that time down to ten minutes.
As a Dragonair, a round trip had taken him an hour. He was now about six times faster.
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